Former England cricketer Michael Vaughan admitted he was baffled watching Shreyas Iyer's blistering knock against in an IPL 2025 match on Tuesday (March 25) as he realized that the Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain is not even part of the Indian T20I team.
Iyer took the Gujarat Titans (GT) bowling attack to the cleaners in Ahmedabad, smashing an unbeaten 97 off 42 balls with five boundaries and nine sixes.
Even though Shreyas needed only three runs to complete his maiden IPL century, he instructed batting partner Shashank Singh to hit every ball for a four or a six in the final over and not focus on giving him the strike.
Shashank followed the plan perfectly as he smashed Mohammed Siraj for five boundaries and 23 runs in the final over, which propelled the Kings to a mammoth 243/5 in 20 overs.
Speaking to Cricbuzz, Vaughan heaped praise on Iyer's knock, expressing his astonishment that the latter was not part of the national T20I side.
"It was brilliant. It really was from the first ball when he punched it down the ground. He makes sixes look very easy, and it's certainly not. And I liked his flicks off the hip to the short ball. But the way he strikes down the ground off the spinners and the one over extra cover, he just gives himself a little bit of space and hits through the line just outside of the off stump. He's a brilliant player. I just keep scratching my head and thinking he's not in the Indian T20I team," Vaughan said.
For Vaughan, Iyer’s absence highlights the level of competition in the Indian T20I team as he warned the rest of the world to catch up before the two upcoming ICC tournaments—the T20 World Cup 2026 and the ODI World Cup 2027.
"It's a real worry for the rest of the world that you know this Indian juggernaut. They've won the T20 World Cup, the Champions Trophy, and the final of the 50-over World Cup. He played brilliantly in the 50-over World Cup. Just had a little bit of an off day in the final. Where is the next T20 World Cup? It's in Sri Lanka. Then, the next 50-over World Cup in South Africa. I've just watched the T20 tournament in South Africa. Lots of spin, lots of slow wickets. So, it will not be any different for the 50-over World Cup. The rest of the world has got to catch up, and I don't know how, I don't know how they're going to do because this Indian juggernaut has a mass of players, and I reckon you've got 30 odd players that you could choose from. Iyer is right up near the top of that," he remarked.
Coming to the match, GT put up a strong fight in the chase but were restricted to 232/5 in 20 overs. The Titans got off to a flying start, with captain Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan stitching together a rapid 61-run stand in just under six overs. However, their momentum took a hit when Gill got dismissed. From there on, the hosts failed to recover despite some fight back from Jos Buttler and Sherfane Rutherford.
